


Prompt: Peaceful Conversation

by EssayOfThoughts



Series: MCU Maximoff Oneshots [93]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Codependency, Found Family, Gen, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, because it's an AU, sibling dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 10:24:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7680730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They all try, in their own ways. Steve knows Bucky, but not the Asset, and while he can accept his friend back easily, it is no easy thing to welcome back the murderer that lives within his skin and shares his skull. Natasha can handle the Asset, however, and Wanda can snap Bucky from it, but only Steve can talk him out of it. Sam and Clint can deal with Bucky, to a point, but all of his facets, the person he was, the person he was made into, the person he has remade himself as…</p><p>No one quite knows him, even Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prompt: Peaceful Conversation

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Prompt: Accords and Discord.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7546473) by [EssayOfThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts). 
  * Inspired by [Prompt: Gunmetal](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6503878) by [EssayOfThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts). 
  * Inspired by [Prompt: Found Family](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6401512) by [EssayOfThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts). 



> Written for a prompt, readable on my tumblr [Here](http://essayofthoughts.tumblr.com/post/148474111640/lynn-here-again-prompt-bucky-and-lo-re-na). This is a sequel to _[Prompt: Accords and Discord](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7546473),_ which is in turn a sequel to _[Prompt: Gunmetal](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6503878),_ in turn a sequel to _[Prompt: Found Family](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6401512)._

**i.  
** The Facility is… there are more of them now, more of them than ever and they might not have rooms enough if the twins and Lorna were not so content to simply share the large room they do.

(Their room is simply kept - the twins beds at right angles to each other in one corner, Lorna’s nearby so when nightmares come they are all there for each other. Two wardrobes and a chest of drawers, divvied up between them, a table always covered with metal for Lorna to practice with, shelves of books for Pietro to read, Wanda’s desk covered with notes and knickknacks and the cross necklace Steve had offered her when Pietro was still recovering.)

(“We don’t Believe,” she had said when he had given it to her, coiling the chain over her knuckles. “And we are Jewish besides.”)

(Steve had looked apologetic, opened his mouth to apologise and Wanda had held the little necklace tighter. “Thank you though,” she had said, “For thinking of something.”)

Space is made, though, and a room set up for Scott, and a room for when T’Challa cares to stay, and one for Spider-boy (Peter, Wanda learns). Bucky sleeps on the sofa in Steve’s room for a week and a half before the team collectively throws their hands up and arranges for an extra bed.

(“He doesn’t need to guard you 24/7,” Tony had said. “The accords are sorted, I’m not gonna try to arrest you.”)

(“Maybe,” Steve says, “ _ I’m  _ protecting  _ him.” ) _

 

* * *

 

**ii.** **  
** That is much the way of things for a while, space made and a (mostly) peaceful co-existence. Pietro and Peter disagree inherently on the subject of Tony Stark, but have hyperactive games of tag that last for hours. T’Challa is distantly polite for the longest time, only easing up as time goes on. Scott and Tony get into arguments over the Ant-Man suit until Hank Pym himself drops by, cuffs them both around the head and tells Tony to “stop trying to get your mitts on my tech.”

For the longest time, though, Bucky is the hardest to get through to.

 

* * *

 

**iii.** **  
** They all try, in their own ways. Steve knows Bucky, but not the Asset, and while he can accept his friend back easily, it is no easy thing to welcome back the murderer that lives within his skin and shares his skull. Natasha can handle the Asset, however, and Wanda can snap Bucky from it, but only Steve can  _ talk  _ him out of it. Sam and Clint can deal with Bucky, to a point, but all of his facets, the person he was, the person he was made into, the person he has remade himself as…

No one quite knows him, even Steve.

 

* * *

 

**iv.** **  
** Steve gets through to Bucky first, of course. Persistent, unwavering, absolute faith in Bucky as  _ Bucky _ and that the Bucky he knew is in the Asset and in the remade man they all now know. Steve sits and learns how Bucky shows up in each facet of the different people he now is, learns how to distinguish and reach out, knows how to recognise when Bucky isn’t  _ Bucky _ , and find what facets of his old friend he can reach out to, an anchoring point to relearn the person his oldest friend has become.

Sam gets to Bucky after Steve. Teasing him so often and so much it almost seems brutal until Bucky cracks a smile. It makes sense, when Wanda thinks about it - both of them care about Steve, would protect Steve, both have been through plenty of war, lost plenty, gained again.

Sam and Bucky will deadpan at each other for hours, snark until one of them breaks into a smile or starts laughing.

The team, as a whole, breathes their first sigh of relief.

 

* * *

 

**v.** **  
** Natasha gets through to Bucky by being  _ very nearly _ a bitch, in much the same way as Sam is  _ very nearly _ a bastard with how hard he teases him. They both toe the line carefully, Steve’s closest new-modern-life friends, use shared experiences and understandings to tease Bucky into breaking into a smile. It’s a line they know well, a line they know to never actually cross, and she gets as much side-eye as Sam did until they see how well it works.

(They spar with him too, show just how unafraid of him they are each time, tease him even if they’re clearly losing because they know the importance of letting him know he’s  _ welcome.) _

 

* * *

 

**vi.**   
T’Challa makes an open apology for his snap-judgement (met by Sam’s  _ Man, you thought he’d killed your dad. There are worse reasons.), _ backed up by an offer to spar, and half the team ends up down in the training room, watching T’Challa’s grace against Bucky’s brutality as the two spar each other into the ground.

“No hard feelings?” Bucky asks, come the end of it, both of them barely able to stand. 

T’Challa smiles, white teeth bright against dark skin, and says, “None at all.”

 

* * *

 

**vii.**   
Once Bucky has eased up some, with Sam and Natasha, with T’Challa’s sparring and Steve’s near-constant presence Clint and Rhodey slip comfortably into the spaces of Bucky’s life, offer a calm to oppose the constant teasing. Sharon joins them, when she can, another peaceful presence instead of teasing, and as they watch Bucky begins to settle in.

 

* * *

 

**viii.**   
Tony avoids him, though, and everyone knows why. (Everyone saw the footage of Bucky-the-Asset killing Tony’s parents. Wanda alone saw the images flashing through Tony’s mind, of how much it would take to call a suit to him, to kill Bucky then and there. The twins, both, find themselves understanding Tony Stark better than they might like, now.)

(If anyone knows what losing parents at another’s hands mean, it is the twins.)

Wanda still sees the images flashing through Tony’s mind when he sees Bucky, thinks of Bucky,  _ speaks _ of Bucky. Wanda knows just how delicate Tony’s control is, and warns Pietro and Lorna to protect them both.

“I do not think he will do anything,” she says softly. “But he has not settled into acceptance just yet.”

 

* * *

 

**ix.**   
Scott, Peter and Pietro join Clint, Bucky, Natasha and Sam for a game of Cards Against Humanity one evening, and while their shouts and screams of laughter keep everyone from sleeping until 2am no one can deny how much more at ease Bucky seems with them all.

“You should have joined us,” Pietro says the next day to Wanda, elbowing her lightly in the ribs. “You would have had fun.”

“I was helping Lorna  _ sleep,” _ is Wanda’s reply, but she is smiling all the same. “Instead of letting her be woken each minute by you all.”

 

* * *

 

**x.** **  
** Vision and Wanda stay with Lorna for much of Bucky’s adjustment into life at the Facility, give him space they both think he needs unless Bucky is in the Asset mindset and none of the others are there to help him out of it. 

“It is all right to not be entirely in your own head,” Wanda says one very early morning as she’s boiling the kettle for her tea, Bucky’s coffee, Lorna’s hot ribena. “With my powers-” she waves a hand, scarlet spirally away and into her hair “-I am not always in my own head either.” She pours the water, deposits Bucky’s mug on the counter as Lorna’s metal mug is floated over by her magnetics to where she is playing draughts with Vision on the sofas. “Is all right, in the end,” she says. “If you have people who can help you find your way back to you again.”

Space is space, given for Bucky to adapt to as he will, but made for him if he wishes to talk to either of them. It becomes not uncommon for the team to wake to Bucky and Vision playing draughts or cards in the common area.

(“It is not,” Vision says when asked, “as though I actually need to sleep terribly much, and I do sleep in the common room besides. It is a small thing to wake me if any of you need company. I do not mind.”)

 

* * *

 

**xi.**   
Bucky adapts to the team, yes, that they all notice.

But he doesn’t adapt to everyone.

 

* * *

 

**xii.** **  
** “He doesn’t talk to me,” Lorna says to Pietro. They’re at the Barton’s everyone else outside sharing the food Clint’s barbecuing. “He talks to all of you, but he won’t talk to me or to Lila or to Coop.” She drums her fingers on the countertop she’s sat on, makes the steel band at Pietro’s wrist hum against his skin. “We don’t like it. We don’t know  _ why.” _

Pietro can see, out the window, where Bucky stands with Steve and Sam, burger held in a napkin by his metal hand. They have all seen his improvement, seen how less and less he needs Natasha or T’Challa to spar with him, Wanda to touch his mind, Steve to talk him down. His nightmares are rarer too, his sleepwalking (or possibly Asset-walking) almost eradicated. 

He’s still careful though, sometimes, edging around odd things that Pietro only notices in case they end up endangering his sisters.

“Ask him,” he suggests. “Write a note to ask, or get Steve to ask him, or find a way to ask him yourself.” He nods down to where his steel bracelet is still humming at his skin and smiles. “You are able to keep yourself safe around him, aren’t you?”

Lorna smiles back, twists her fingers and changes the braid of the metal to a still more complex one.

 

* * *

 

**xiii.** **  
** When Bucky comes into the main room one evening, Lorna is waiting. There is metal scattered over the table top - mostly cutlery, but some chain links, a few screws, misshapen pieces, things that look like parts of puzzles.

Lorna’s voice is soft. “Why do you avoid me?” The metal at her fingertips dances. “You avoid Lila and Coop too, but they aren’t here. So. Why do you avoid me?”

The room is quiet and while it’s not dark it’s not bright either, just gently dim, enough light to see clearly by but not so bright as to hurt someone’s eyes when just woken from sleep. Bucky sits opposite her, slowly, carefully.

“I’ve killed kids your age,” he says. “Older and younger too.”

Lorna is quiet, spinning cutlery between her hands. “Wanda says you weren’t  _ you _ then. That there are protocols in your mind like in Pietro’s but some of yours you didn’t chose and those are what she has to stop to bring  _ you _ back.”

“… Yes.” Bucky is quiet, Lorna sets the cutlery down gently.

“I was captured by HYDRA too,” she says. “I didn’t volunteer like Wanda or Pietro. They just took me.” Her fingers drum on the tabletop, metal moving towards her hands. “That’s why I have my powers.” She twitches a finger, bends a spoon back on itself. “Wanda and Pietro got me out. I know what it’s like, though, to be under HYDRA’s thumb. They drugged me so I couldn’t escape.”

“You’re ten years old,” Bucky says, voice flat.

“Almost eleven,” Lorna corrects. “HYDRA doesn’t care about age, though. We’re all just…”

“Cogs,” Bucky says. “In whatever damn machine they want to make.”

Lorna nods, spins cutlery around with a single gesture. She can see Bucky’s eyes moving as though memories are coiling free, making him think. She almost wishes Wanda were here, almost stretches her mind down the bridges to the sleeping twins, to ask them to be present.

But they are sleeping without nightmares and Lorna will not wake them.

There is the slightest hitch when Bucky finally speaks. “They shouldn’t have done that to you, HYDRA.”

Lorna stretches her magnetics, turns the tap, fills a tin mug with water, floats it to Bucky.

“But they did,” she says. “They shouldn’t have done things to you, either.”

“But they did,” Bucky says. He sips from the mug, sets it down.

“Pietro says it’s not my fault, that I couldn’t protect myself then. Wanda says that now, at least, I  _ can _ protect myself. Vision says he wished I didn’t have to go through what I did to become stronger.”

“But you did,” Bucky says.

“But we did,” Lorna says. “We can protect ourselves and those we care about better now.”

“People are frightened of us,” Bucky says. “Hell,  _ I’m _ frightened of what I can do.” Metal fingers tap on the metal mug.

Lorna’s voice is quiet, almost sad. “Wanda says they always will. That people always fear and that we can only ever control our own.”

“Maybe,” Bucky says.

_ “They _ aren’t scared of us,” Lorna says gesturing back towards the bedrooms. “Mostly. But they do worry. I don’t like making them worry.”

Bucky looks uncertain, almost confused. “Were they? Worrying I mean.”

Lorna glances to where she’d gestured. “They always worry,” she says. “Even now they’re sleeping. But  _ everyone _ was worrying about you. You avoided everyone so much. You still avoid me.”

The smile Bucky gives is small but genuine. “’til you cornered me.”

Lorna shrugs. “If people don’t talk to you sometimes you need to talk to them. Sometimes it’s the only way.” Bucky nods slowly, sips from the mug again. “Will you stop avoiding us now? Me and Lila and Coop?  _ We _ aren’t scared of you.” Bucky pauses, the mug halfway between his mouth and the table. “And I can protect myself,” Lorna adds. “And I’ll protect them, and Wanda and Pietro will too. If you’re still afraid of hurting us.”

Bucky looks at her, the small green-haired girl perched opposite him, metal dancing in front of her, eyes quite, quite unafraid.

Lorna’s voice is very quiet when she next speaks. “Just because you’re afraid of what you can do doesn’t mean everyone else is,” she says. Her eyes dart towards the bedrooms, rooms where people who aren’t scared of them sleep peacefully, unafraid of what they might do. “Promise.”

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are very much appreciated!


End file.
